The Greenway Arts Alliance‘s Melrose Trading Post is a staunch supporter of its local community. Working in tandem with Fairfax High School administration, teachers and parents, Greenway Co-Artistic Directors, Whitney Weston and Pierson Blaetz, envisioned the Trading Post as a means for the students to make a significant contribution to their own success through raising money for school programs and increasing confidence and self-esteem.

A flea market “for the sexy, hip and groovy crowd” (Los Angeles Times) The Melrose Trading Post is held every Sunday from 9AM to 5PM in the parking lot of Fairfax High School, where 3,000 to 5,000 attendees browse the wares of nearly 250 eclectic vendors. Overseen by Greenway Arts Alliance and run by and for the Friends of Fairfax Foundation, the Melrose Trading Post is widely regarded as the most successful, ongoing fundraising event in the history of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

California state budget cuts over the last 20 years have cost the Los Angeles public school system millions of dollars, which would have been allocated for the arts, after-school programs, and “luxuries” such as new computers, sports uniforms and scholarships. Thanks to this weekly fund-raising opportunity developed in 1997, students at Fairfax High School in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles have benefited from money for programs they themselves earned.

This blog is primarily written by vendor manager, Natalie, to share the stories and images of the most unique flea market in Los Angeles, CA.

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A Note From LAUSD:

Use of the school premises for the Melrose Trading Post market has been granted pursuant to the provisions of Sections 17400, et seq., of the Education Code of the State of California to Greenway Arts Alliance from the Board of Education of the Los Angeles Unified School District. LA Unified and the Board of Education does not sponsor or take responsibility, nor does it endorse any of the activities, statements or opinions which may be expressed at this meeting/activity.